Bootloader unlocking of ZTE phones powered by Qualcomm processors

ZTE has had a rough ride after being banned by the US government but even after that jolt, the company continues its efforts of global presence. With devices like Axon 11 5G and Axon 11 SE, it’s brought value to other markets and now there’s good news coming. Some old Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered ZTE phones’ bootloader can be unlocked easily in a few simple steps. This works on devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 210, Snapdragon 617, and also includes devices running the Snapdragon 427/430/435/625 SoC.

Thanks to XDA veteran member Alexenferman, the bootloader of ZTE phones running Android version prior to Oreo 8.0 can be unlocked without data loss. To do this, he exploits the ZTE device’s ‘devinfo’ partition which stores crucial bootloader state parameters like the lock/unlock status. Since the Firehose protocol permits reading the contents of individual partitions, the ‘devinfo’ partition can be dumped from a bootloader-locked device.

Then the offset where the unlocking parameters are stored can be changed. After that the modified image can be written back to the device for unlocking the bootloader. The procedure should be done only by pro users as it can brick the compatible device.